Since non-essential stores re-opened last April Furniture Village saw orders jump by more than 70% compared with 2019.
The 54-store chain says between April 2021 and the end of November 2021, orders were ‘over 70% ahead of the equivalent period in 2019 pre-Covid, by far recouping the shortfall in bookings over the third lockdown.’
The jump came after it swung back into the black in the year to 28 March 2021.
Despite lockdowns, the chain maintained sales at £255m during the year. A pre-tax loss of £2.6m became a £3.2m profit.
Cash rose from £23.8m to £37.6m during the financial year and it says this rose to more than £40m by the end of 2021, despite repaying the £5.9m loan to the Business Growth Fund, which was repaid in April and May 2021.
In the year it received £5.3m from furlough payments. ‘Needless to say we remain grateful for the Government support, with furlough receipts claimed over the first period of lockdown ensuring that we were able to retain personnel during the cessation of store and warehouse operations. It furthermore helped to support the extensive investment in PPE and other safety measures required to ensure the health, safety and wellbeing of both our people and our customers, this of course [is] of the utmost importance.’
During the year staff numbers rose from 1,031 to 1,119 while concession income rose from £1.7m to £1.86m.
The impact of last May’s cyber attack, which lead to delivery disruption and criticism from customers but no breach of customer database, will be reflected in the chain’s next accounts.